A Bob's Life: Monday Musings

Monday, August 14, 2023

Monday Musings - August 14, 2023

1. Welcome to the second Monday of August! There are but two remaining Mondays in the month and just 19 Mondays remaining in the year!

2. What a travel day it was. Our flight from Palm Beach International to Baltimore was short and efficient. Although the place was packed, we departed early and arrived very early. We did not have to wait on the tarmac for a gate and the entire boarding and deplaning process was very smooth. The only problem? Retrieving checked baggage in Baltimore continues to be a very negative experience. The drive from Baltimore to Ithaca was smooth and enjoyable.

AL East Standing
As of games through August 13, 2023

3. Orioles Baseball! Listening to the game yesterday during the drive, it was a game where each run and every play was important. The Orioles prevailed during the 10th inning after the relief corps almost let another one get away with a blown save in the 9th inning. But two runs, compliments of a Cedric Mullins homer, in the 10th sealed the win. Not to mention a spectacular home run robbing play by the same Cedric Mullins in the 9th inning.

4. Driving through the area from Baltimore to the Southern Tier of New York, I was reminded of how pretty and inviting the hills are when they are robed in the green of the trees. It was a great ride and seeing the Finger Lakes again brought me back to my childhood home.

5. Today in History. A major outage knocked out power across the eastern United States and parts of Canada on August 14, 2003. Beginning at 4:10 p.m. ET, 21 power plants shut down in just three minutes. Fifty million people were affected, including residents of New York, Cleveland and Detroit, as well as Toronto and Ottawa, Canada. Although power companies were able to resume some service in as little as two hours, power remained off in other places for more than a day. The outage stopped trains and elevators, and disrupted everything from cellular telephone service to operations at hospitals to traffic at airports. In New York City, it took more than two hours for passengers to be evacuated from stalled subway trains. Small business owners were affected when they lost expensive refrigerated stock. The loss of use of electric water pumps interrupted water service in many areas. There were even some reports of people being stranded mid-ride on amusement park roller coasters. At the New York Stock Exchange and bond market, though, trading was able to continue thanks to backup generators.